“years before he had written, ‘All stories if continued far enough end in death, and he is no true storyteller who would keep that from you'” (Carter, 1999).
III. The Old Man and the Sea: The “ Best Workin Hemingway’s Eyes
3.1 Preparation for the Book
The Old Man and the Sea was finished in 1952. It is a short story about an old Cuban fisherman, Santiago and his losing battle with a big marlin. It is a representation of life as a struggle against nature and a respect for the struggle of mankind.
To write the novel Hemingway tried very hard. The seed of the story existed in Hemingway’s mind for about15 years. As early as 1939, Hemingway wanted to write the story of an old fisherman. He based the story on many experiences. He had his own experience of fishing marlin in the Caribbean. He acquired a reputation for bringing his fish in quickly before sharks had time to damage them. He once wrote in an article in The New York Times, "I tried to make a real old man, a real boy, a real sea and real sharks. But if I made them good and true enough they would mean many things(Tao, 1992). The nucleus of the old man’s experience was recorded in an article by Hemingway and reprinted by Carlos Baker in his study of Hemingway:
An old man fishing alone in a skiff out of Cabanas hooked a great marlin that, on a heavy sash cord handline, pulled the skiff far out to sea. Two days later the old man was picked up by fishermen 60 miles to the eastward, the head and the forward part of the marlin lashed alongside. What was left of the fish, less than half, weighed 80 pounds. The old man had stayed with him a day, a night, a day and another night while the fish swam deep and pulled the boat. When he had come up the old man had pulled the boat up on him and harpooned him. Lashed alongside the sharks had hit him and the old man had fought them out alone in the Gulf Stream in a skiff, clubbing them, stabbing at them, lunging at them with an oar until he was exhausted and the sharks had eaten all they could hold. (Baker, 1956: 294)
3.2 Santiago: Courage Is Grace under Pressure
In The Old Man and the Sea, Hemingway presents old age facing life and death with courage, hope and wisdom. Hemingway tries to demonstrate this attitude towards life in his work. The old man’s search for his fish and success is Hemingway’s favorite ingredient. It requires physical strength, skill, experience, and courage. Santiago has the qualities that Hemingway has admired. Santiago is proud, but old. He has learned that humility can exist with true pride. Though failure is bitter, he faces it and accepts its pain, as he accepts loneliness. Beyond the suffering and disappointment, the old man sees hope, “Hope is the duty of man”(Hemingway, 1961: 21). In Santiago, Hemingway is telling us courage is “grace under pressure”.
The old man has a special relationship with the boy, with the sea, and with the creatures in the sea. Hemingway spends a good deal of time describing this relationship. The old man sees the boy at the beginning and at the end. He makes the boy feel mature and responsible, and regards the boy as his refreshment and hope. The boy, in return, is protector as well as pupil, providing refreshment, companionship, and hope. The old man spends the rest of the time with the sea and its creatures. He thinks about the sea and the creatures in it. He has tender love towards them. He loves the beauty, power and mystery of the sea. “He always thought of the sea as ‘Ia mar'which is what people call her in Spanish when they love her(Hemingway, 1961: 21). For the old man, most creatures in the sea are his brothers. To kill them is only when there is need or a fair contest. They are not as intelligent as we who kill them, although they are more noble and more able(Hemingway, 1961: 53). So the old man thinks the creatures should be killed skillfully and cleanly. For Santiago, success and failure are two equal facets of the same existence. They are transitory forms that capriciously arrive and depart without affecting the underlying unity between him and nature. As long as he focuses on this unity and sees himself as part of nature rather than as an external antagonist competing with it, he cannot be defeated by whatever misfortunes befall him.
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